Please Come Home!!

I was not actually on the Evangelization team at our church but I had talked to Father a while back about my desire to find a way to bring back non-practicing Catholics. I didn’t know at the time that plans were already in place for our parish to participate in *Catholics Come Home as part of the Church's **New Evangelization which focuses efforts on bringing Catholics back to the Church.

I was happy to learn about the Evangelization team and the committee that was a branch of the team. I was invited to join the team due to my interest but I missed the 1^st meeting while on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, so I didn't get to be part of Catholics Come Home.

Catholics Come Home was advertised via downtown billboard. On the billboard was a picture of our church with the front doors wide open. A date was posted on the billboard for interested people to come. This sign beckoned me as well.

I wanted to be a part of Catholics Come Home so I showed up at church on the day and time posted. Team members were present to talk to the people who answered the invitation. Some came because they had been thinking about returning to the Church but couldn’t get motivated. Some came because they were personally invited, but many came because they saw the billboard.

When I arrived, I saw very small groups of people at tables, one team member and one or two of the people who showed up sitting at each table.

I stood in the doorway wondering if I should stay or go when two new people arrived. I asked them to sign in and they were given name tags.

I walked them to an empty table and sat down with them. We chatted. I invited them over to the snack table. We took our snacks back to our table.

I gently asked them a few leading questions to help them share their feelings. I learned what motivated them to come that night. One of them told me she had been looking for a sign that she should return and then she saw “the sign!” We all laughed.

After a while we started to get into issues that might keep them from returning to the Church. They were willing to share this with me but before we got into it very deeply I said, “Let me go get Father.” When I returned I told them that Father would be with them shortly. Father came over to our table about 5 minutes later. I did introductions, then I told everyone that I was leaving now. I told them Father would speak to them privately.

Father asked me if I was on the team. I said no I’m not. I told him I just showed up. The ones I had been speaking to were surprised and told Father, “She’s good.”

Later I asked Father if I could come back next week. He said no because I wasn’t trained and the team members had received special training. He told me to start coming to the quarterly Evangelization meetings if I was interested.

I praise God that our Church was built up a little more that day as some of its members returned to the heritage of their Catholic Faith.

*http://www.catholicscomehome.org/experience-love-acceptance/

**http://www.catholic.com/video/what-is-the-new-evangelization